First, I have to acknowledge the valuable contribution by Curt Woodward, Associated Press reporter, who requested the exchange of e-mails between the governor's office and others about the Worker Privacy bill, which was killed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.
The rest of the press corps merely piggybacked on Curt's request. I singled out this particular e-mail because the Boeing lobbyist was telling the governor's main Boeing liaison that the Worker Privacy Bill, which was being pushed by Labor, was on the verge of winning approval by the Legislature. That was gonna be bad news for Boeing.
UPDATE: A reader suggests that I point out what could have happened if Brown and Chopp had NOT killed the bill. If they passed it and the Labor Council e-mail came out later, they would have been open to criticism that they caved in to threats from Labor and they just passed the bill to keep the campaign contributions flowing from Labor into Democratic political action committees warchests. Consequently, they were justified in killing it because THAT would have looked bad. (Fair enough?)
This e-mail shows part of the head count that Boeing had done. Some of the "yes" votes were reluctant, according to Boeing. He's also saying the governor has to get off her butt and do something.
"The Governor cannot sit by and wait for this stuff to go away on it's
own. It will not," Boeing lobbyist Trent House said.
Lucky for House, a copy of a Labor Council strategy e-mail was CC'ed to four legislators and that provided the cover for Brown, Chopp and Gregoire to kill the bill.
Here is cast of characters:
The part of the Boeing lobbyist is played by Trent House.
The governor's advisor on all things Boeing: Bill McSherry
Two more notes: The bill would have let employees walk out of management meetings that bad-mouthed labor unions or hit workers up for United Way contributions, etc.
All the last names listed in House's head count are state Representatives.
-----Original Message-----
From: House, Trent M">.M.House@boeing.com>
To: Bill McSherry
Sent: Fri Mar 06 23:29:15 2009
Subject: Vote count on HB 1528 - Worker PrivacyBill,
I have been counting votes and the reality is grim.
Legislator's overwhelmingly want this bill just to go away and not have a vote.
However, if a vote is required, most would reluctantly vote with the
Labor community despite the known legal and symbolic flaws. This bill
must not come up for a vote or it will pass with a large margin and
compel the Senate to act as well. I don't believe that Senate and House
Leadership can make this call on their own. I think they need and
expect the Governor to share the responsibility necessary to do the
right thing on these issues.So far here is what I have...
No
Ericks
Hunter
Clibborn
PedersenYes
Pettigrew
Probst
O'Brien
Jacks
SullivanAgainst but will vote Yes on the floor if a vote is taken
Blake
Kelley
Kessler
Springer
Takko
White
Carlyle
Eddy
Hurst
Finn
MaxwellI have not yet had a chance to speak with Rep Morris. My best guess
would be that the rest of the D's would say yes during a vote count and
yes on the floor.The Senate is running the Diversion bill (SSB 5809) tomorrow. We can't
get into a position where the Senate and the House split the bad stuff
up and we can stop anything because both sides have to do a little for
Labor. We still have Ex-Parte to deal with and the Budget and we
haven't even begin to address the competitiveness issues that we began
this session with.The Governor cannot sit by and wait for this stuff to go away on it's
Regards, Trent
own. It will not.
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